Chelsea will win the Premier League title this season, manager Jose Mourinho has predicted.
The Blues were knocked out of the Champions League by Paris St-Germain in midweek but lead the top flight by five points with 11 games remaining.
Mourinho said: “The people who went out last Wednesday are the same who’ve been top of the league since day one.
“They are the same people who won the Capital One Cup and the same people who are going to win the Premier League.”
Mourinho said that he held a meeting with his players to discuss their defeat, on away goals, in the last 16 of the Champions League and had now “closed the chapter”.
He added: “The only thing to speak about the Champions League is that if we win the Premier League we are top seeds next season.
“We closed the chapter, but we still have the book to write. We have 11 more matches to finish the book.
“Let’s see if the last page of the book is with the Premier League trophy in our hands.”
Chelsea host Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday, kick-off 13:30 GMT. PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic described Chelsea players as “babies” for surrounding the referee Mourinho on Souness, shadows and short memories
Former Liverpool players-turned-pundits Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher were scathing of Chelsea’s approach and conduct during their Champions League exit.
Mourinho said: “You know, the world is a bit strange, maybe because of diet and the quality of the products we are eating, because memories are getting shorter. “When Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness speak about it, it’s because they’re having a problem.
“Jamie stopped playing a couple of years ago and in two years he forgot everything he did on the pitch.
“Mr Souness also forgot but he stopped playing quite a long time [ago], and he also forgets that a couple of years after he left Benfica I coached there. I know a lot about him.
“I learned so much about him but also a certain kind of education, not just in football but also in life. So I prefer to laugh and say that envy is the biggest tribute that the shadows give to the man.”
Souness won three European Cups as a player and his last managerial job was with Newcastle United in 2006.
Mourinho added: “The difference between me and Souness is this – Souness as a player, up there. Jose Mourinho as a player, down here. Jose Mourinho as a manager, up here. Souness as a manager, down there.
“With another difference – I was not a frustrated man because I was not a top player. He is clearly a frustrated man.
“I have lots of respect, in spite of some episodes, for a fantastic player with a fantastic career in a fantastic club with a top generation.”
Mourinho on pressurising referees
Chelsea were criticised after nine of their players surrounded referee Bjorn Kuipers before he showed Zlatan Ibrahimovic a red card following a challenge on Oscar in the midweek defeat by PSG.
Mourinho said: “If my players surround the referee, we are charged.
“We have to pay a fine and if we do that, the players pay the fine. At this moment we have eight months of competition, we have been charged once and we paid for that. It’s as simple as that.”
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